Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Jaane kahan mera jigar gayaa ji...



Johnny Walker (Badruddin Jamaluddin Kazi... May 15, 1923-July 29, 2003) was born in Srinagar, India. His father was a mill worker. The family later moved to Bombay. Badruddin tried different occupations and while he was working as a bus conductor on the B.E.S.T. line that he caught the attention of Balraj Sahni, who was working on the screenplay of Guru Dutt's Baazi.
Guru Dutt gave him the screen name "Johnny Walker" and they remained good friends. Guru Dutt always made sure to have a role for Johnny Walker in his films.

Johnny Walker met Noor(actress Shakila's sister) on the set of Aar Paar and later married her. They had 3 daughters and 3 sons.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was quite fond of Johnny Walker.

He acted in many films...including Baazi(1951), Aar paar, Mr. & Mrs. 55, Pyaasa, Devdaas, Mughal-e-Azam, Chaudhvin ka chaand, Kagaz ke phool, Anand, Shaan....his last film was Kamal Hasan's Chachi 420(1998)

Some of his very memorable roles were in C.I.D.(1956), Chori chori (1956),Madhumati(1958) and Mere Mehboob(1963).

Awards...
Best supporting actor, Madhumati (1958)
Best Comedian, Shikar (1968)

Some of the songs filmed on Johnny Walker...
Aye dil hai mushkil ...C.I.D.
Dekhta chala gayaa main ...Gateway of India
Gareeb jaan ke...Chhoo mantar
Sar jo tera chakraye...Pyaasa
Mera yaar bana hai dulha...Chaudhveen ka chaand
Jungal mein mor nacha...Madhumati

I thank Azam for helping me pay tribute to the one and only, Johnny Walker...

Movie: Mr. & Mrs. 55(1955)
Music: O.P. Nayyar
Lyrics:Majrooh Sultanpuri
Original singers: Mohammed Rafi & Geeta Dutt
Filmed on: Johnny Walker & Yasmin


Download "Jaane kahan mera jigar gayaa ji"

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Jaane kya tune kahi...





Guru Dutt (Vasanth Kumar Padukone) was born on July 9, 1925 in Bangalore, India.
He did his schooling in Bengal and spoke fluent Bengali.
He was a well known actor, director and producer in Bombay film industry. Some of his memorable films were Baazi, Jaal, Aar Paar, Mr. and Mrs. 55, C.I.D., Pyaasa, Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam and Kagaz ke Phool.
He married Geeta Roy in 1953 overcoming a great deal of family opposition. Later, he was said to have a romantic involvement with Waheeda Rehman. He died on October 10, 1964 from overdose of sleeping pills.

"Pyaasa" is a story of a struggling poet Vijay (GuruDutt) who was ditched by his love, Meena(Mala Sinha). She married a wealthy publisher, Mr. Ghosh(Rehman). Vijay meets a prostitute, Gulabo(Waheeda), who loves his poems and gets those published. At the end, Vijay, who had enough of this selfish world, leaves with his true companion, Gulabo.

In 2004, the sound track of Pyaasa was chosen as Best film music by British film institute magazine.
This was the last collaboration of the popular SDB, Sahir team.
The story was partly based on the life of its writer Chandra Shekhar 'Prem' .
The song...
"Hum aap ki aankhon mein" was added upon pressure from the distributors...as a relief from a pessimistic story.
Guru Dutt had initially hoped for Nargis, Madhubala and Dilip Kumar for the roles of Meena, Gulabo and Vijay.


Movie: Pyaasa (1957)
Music: S D Burman
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
Original singer: Geeta Dutt

Download "Jaane kya tune kahi"